Publications

2023
Sarazm: A Site along the Proto-Silk Road at the Intersection of the Steppe and Oasis Cultures.
Mutin, Benjamin, Sarazm: A Site along the Proto-Silk Road at the Intersection of the Steppe and Oasis Cultures. Oxus I (Brepols, 2023), pp. xxvi + 258 p., 20 b/w, 181 col., 74 tables b/w., 8 maps color.Abstract
Results from Excavation VII

Sarazm, in modern-day Tajikistan, is rightly famous as an archaeological site. A Chalcolithic and Bronze Age settlement, it formed part of a cultural and economic network that stretched from the steppe of Central Asia across to the Iranian Plateau and the Indus. Between 1984 and 1994, fi eld-work led by a joint Tajik-French project took place at Excavation VII, yielding unique archaeological contexts and materials that shed light on Sarazm’s multicultural nature, its evolution through time, and the varied activities that took place at the site. Now, in this new volume, the fi rst comprehensive description and analysis of all available data from Excavation VII is presented, and the data from this excavation contextualized both at site level and within the broader setting of the Steppe and Oasis cultures of the IVth and IIIrd millennia BCE. The author offers functional, cultural, and chronological conclusions about the exposed occupations, as well as putting forward new interpretations and hypotheses on this important settlement. 

The publication project was directed by Benjamin Mutin.
For purchsing information, please visit the publisher's website.

Shiqmim II. The phase II excavations at a Chalcolithic settlement center in the northern Negev desert, Israel (1987–1993)
Levy, Thomas E., Yorke Rowan, and Margie M. Burton, ed. Shiqmim II. The phase II excavations at a Chalcolithic settlement center in the northern Negev desert, Israel (1987–1993) (BAR Publishing, 2023), pp. 220.Abstract

The Chalcolithic period (ca. 4500–3600 BCE) in the southern Levant represents the rise of regional polities, the metallurgical revolution, and a set of other significant socio-economic changes that distinguish it from the preceding Pottery Neolithic period. Central to these issues are the Phase II (1987–1989, 1993) excavations at Shiqmim, a large Chalcolithic settlement centre in Israel’s northern Negev desert. The first phase of excavations at Shiqmim took place between 1979 and 1984 and were described in Shiqmim I, Parts i and ii (BAR Publishing, 1987). Shiqmim II reports on the second phase of excavations at this complex site and contributes to a greater understanding of its Chalcolithic stratigraphy, architecture, and chronology. It includes the project research design and history framed in an anthropological archaeology perspective, primary excavation data, and a Bayesian analysis of radiocarbon dates from Shiqmim presented in comparison with dates from contemporary regional sites.

The publication project was directed by Thomas E. Levy with a grant awarded in 1999, and the volume was co-edited with Yorke M. Rowan and Margie M. Burton.
For more information, or to purchase, please visit the publisher's website.

Sangtarashan: the Iron Age at Pish Kuh of Luristan
Hashemi, Zahra, Mehrdad Malekzadeh, and Ata Hasanpour, Sangtarashan: the Iron Age at Pish Kuh of Luristan (Peeters, 2023), pp. 331.Abstract

With a study "The lithic assemblage of Sangtarashan" by Francesca Manclossi

Sangtarashan is an archaeological site located in the central part of the Zagros Mountain in the Luristan region (Western Iran). Discovered in 2002, the site was the subject of six excavation seasons between 2005 and 2011.

From the first archaeological investigations, it became clear that the site presents an exceptional character. Within a circular stone structure, overlapped by several other constructions, over two thousand artefacts, among them hundreds of metallic objects known as “the Bronzes of Luristan,” have been uncovered. These artefacts were buried as a package under the floor, embedded in the walls or scattered over the surface of the site.

Architectural and artefact studies led to a proposal of Sangtarashan as a ritual place with two occupation levels. Artefact deposits from the first level consisted of weapons and vessels and were buried as packages under the floor of the sanctuary. Those of the second level, made up of isolated objects, smaller in size and more varied in nature, were deposited in the walls or scattered on the surface. The first occupation level dates to the Iron Age I-II and the second dates to the Iron Age II-III (and perhaps even IV). The hypothesis of a non-ritual function for the second level is not entirely ruled out, given the extension of the architectural structures to the west and the position of objects scattered across the entire site.

Along with Surkh Dom-i Lori, Sangtarashan is the second Iron Age sanctuary in the Central Zagros where worshippers dedicated hundreds of artefacts as ritual deposits. The richness of metal artifacts discovered in Sangtarashan placed it as a reference site for the study of the Bronzes of Luristan.

The publication project was directed by the 2018 grant award recipient Zahra Hashemi.
For more information, or to purchase the volume, please visit the publisher's website.

Priniàs I. The protoarchaic complex on the southern slope of the Patela
Pautasso, Antonella, and Salvatore Rizza, Priniàs I. The protoarchaic complex on the southern slope of the Patela (Fiorentina, All'Insegna del Giglio; #34, Monografie della Scuola Archeologica di Atene e delle Missioni Italiane in Oriente, 2023), pp. 350.Abstract

The volume focuses on a large Protoarchaic block on the southern slope of the Patela of Prinias. Built in several phases during the 7th century BC, the block played an important role within the settlement, in terms of structure and spatial organisation, but mainly because it contained a large building (Building C) with a central eschara and its annexes.

The Protoarchaic building complex is located at the SE vertex of the ideal triangle formed by the Patela plateau. Excavations carried out between 1989 and 1994 by Giovanni Rizza revealed three independent building complexes or blocks and three streets, articulated on an area with a slope of about 17% and arranged on sloping terraces. The protoarchaic complex corresponds to the central block, which is certainly the best preserved due to its position on the slope. The excavation method followed during the exploration of the Protoarchaic complex from 1989 to 1994 involved the successive removal of different layers of earth, the composition and thickness of which are always recorded on the notebooks. The data recording in the various excavation notebooks is always precise and often accompanied by sketches; the description of the operations carried out during the excavation, completed by references to the finds, as well as to the graphic and photographic documentation, was regularly recorded. The re-reading of the excavation reports, together with the study of the materials (804 objects, largely unpublished before this study, and including pottery, coroplastic finds, textile tools, metal objects, small finds of stone, bone, clay and glass, and a very important inscription painted on a vase), has made it possible to note previously overlooked data, which have often proved fundamental to the reconstruction of the complex as well as to its interpretation.

The complex covers an area where older evidence is present. Apart from a few sporadic objects that date to an earlier period than LM IIIC, when the permanent occupation of the Patela dates back, there are a number of rock cut structures in the area. Over time, these structures were first respected by the builders of the complex and later incorporated into Building C. Among them are a tripartite base/bench carved into the rock, a column base and a long bench, as well as several rock carvings. The area also yielded a number of Late Bronze Age/Early Iron Age objects. Throughout the Protogeometric period (11th-9th centuries) and to a lesser extent during the 8th century, the area was intensively used, probably in connection with the performance of cultic/ceremonial practices, as attested by the presence of coroplastic finds and a considerable amount of pottery, as well as a large burnt area, probably a hearth.

The earlier core of the protoarchaic complex was built in the first half of the 7th century BC, as evidenced by a foundation deposit consisting of four skyphoi. The first structure of the complex was a long oikos, divided internally into three rooms of different sizes, the central room being slightly larger. In a short space of time, by the middle of the 7th century, the complex had expanded to include a series of rooms arranged around a central courtyard. It is worth noting that this earlier structure did not cover the rock carvings, but preserved them on the outside of the southern wall by deliberately retracting its course.

With the construction of Building C and its annexes in the late 7th century, the complex underwent some changes. Building C was not an isolated building, but was structurally and ideologically linked to the pre-existing block, although it did not communicate directly with it. Access to the building was not free or open to a space or a street. On the contrary, it was filtered through a closed passage consisting of a door and a staircase leading to an open space in front of the building, a courtyard created by the division of the north-south street.

Inside Building C, the oldest structures, namely the tripartite bench carved into the rock, were now included in the area of the vestibule. The remaining rock carvings in the area of the main hall were obliterated by the paved floor of the new building, with the possible exception of the bench on the N side, which probably remained in use.

All the material evidence, especially the pottery, suggests that Building C had a function related to communal dining. This function is clearly integrated by the archaeological documentation found in the courtyard and in the annexes. The courtyard was an open space where food was stored, processed and prepared, while an adjoining room, containing some thirteen large pithoi, was a storeroom.

The areas dedicated to the processing and preparation of food, the iteration of table services, the emphasis on the storage of resources on a supra-household level, the organisation of communal meals, the cultic aspect (the tripartite base-bench?), the presence of weapons (a possible fragment of a bronze mitra and a sauroter) and of an inscribed aryballos (whose inscription celebrates Θλ[- -], the fastest of the dromeis) are all elements related to the conceptual sphere referable to the term andreion. To these data should be added further remarks on the finds (faunal remains of wild animals, dog bones and iron arrowheads) that attest to the practice of hunting, which, along with warfare and athleticism, played a fundamental role in the ideology of masculine identity and constituted one of the fundamental aspects of Cretan agoghè.

The proposed interpretation considers building C as an andreion, complemented by the annexes and the remaining rooms of the protoarchaic complex. This interpretation involved a brief reconsideration of the question of the function of the so-called hearth temples and, above all, a review of some of the most significant examples of buildings with a communal dining function on Crete (notably Aphratì, Azoria and Praisòs). A number of points of contact were found with these buildings, despite obvious planimetric differences.

Finally, the complex was considered in the context of the urban development of Prinias during the 7th century and in relation to other buildings.

The identification of a discontinuity in the function of important public/communal and residential buildings in the late 7th century, coinciding with the construction of the well-known Temple A and the complex of Building C with its annexes, highlights the crucial importance of this period for the development of the Prinias settlement, which corresponds to the definitive rise of the polis. The changes, probably linked to the growth of the settlement and a new organisation of the spaces, must be read in terms of social competition, a phenomenon also evident in the contemporary funerary dimension.

The grant award from the White Levy Program to produce this work was issued to
Dr. Antonella Pautasso in 2020.
For more information or to purchase the volume, please visit the publisher's website.

The Second Cataract Fortress of Dorginarti. NE 12.
Heidorn, Lisa, The Second Cataract Fortress of Dorginarti. NE 12. (Institute for the Study of Ancient Cultures, U. of Chicago, 2023), pp. • Pp. lii + 496; 184 figures, 7 tables, 3 maps, 10 plans, 107 plates.Abstract

With contributions by Carol Myer and Joanna Then-Obluska

The best-known sites along the length of the Nile River's Second Cataract are the ruins of Egyptian towns and fortresses occupied during the Old, Middle, and New Kingdoms. One of the fortresses in the Second Cataract region, Dorginarti existed in a later era than the better-known Middle and New Kingdom forts. The earliest ceramics found at the site date from the later tenth or early ninth century BC, and those from a later occupation stem from the early eighth century. The latest phase of occupation did not extend far beyond the first phase of Persian dominance in Egypt beginning in the last quarter of the sixth century BC.
This volume is the final report of the emergency excavations undertaken at Dorginarti for five months in 1964 by the University of Chicago's Institute for the Study of Ancient Cultures as part of the UNESCO Nubian salvage project necessitated by the building of the Aswan High Dam. Following a description of the fortress's landscape and resources, the book describes Dorginarti's architecture in detail and then presents the selection of artifacts brought back from the Sudan and stored in the ISAC Museum. The picture that emerges from the archaeological record shows the continuing importance of Lower Nubia after the withdrawal of Egyptian control in the late second millennium BC and before the rise of the Kushite empire in the Twenty-Fifth Dynasty.

The book is authored by Lisa Heidorn
Please visit the publisher's website to download, purchase or for additional information.
Discovering the kingdom of Ugarit (Syria of the 2nd millennium). C.F.A. Schaeffer's excavations at Minet el-Beida and Ras Shamra (1929‒1937).
Sauvage, Caroline, and Christine Lorre, ed. Discovering the kingdom of Ugarit (Syria of the 2nd millennium). C.F.A. Schaeffer's excavations at Minet el-Beida and Ras Shamra (1929‒1937). (Austrian Academy of Sciences Press (Contributions to the Archaeology of Egypt, Nubia and the Levant 7), 2023).Abstract

À la découverte du royaume d'Ougarit (Syrie du IIe millénaire). Les fouilles de C.F.A. Schaeffer à Minet el-Beida et Ras Shamra (1929‒1937).

With contributions from Olivier Callot, Annie Caubet, Claude Chanut, Philippe Claeys, Sophie Cluzan, Éric Coqueugniot, Patrice Courtaud, Guillaume Gernez, Robert Hawley, Sarah Ivorra, Christine Lorre, Valérie Matoïan, Nadine Mattielli, Claire Newton, François Poplin, Virginie Renson, Caroline Sauvage, Jean-Frédéric Terral, Marguerite Yon
 

This monograph presents the archaeological material that was found during the first years of the excavations in Ras Shamra-Ugarit led by C. F. A. Schaeffer. The catalogue is the result of a multidisciplinary collective research project in which numerous specialists from a wide range of disciplines participated, many of them being members of the Syrian-French archaeological mission in Ras Shamra-Ugarit. Over the years, up until the armed conflict broke out in 2011, a huge number of finds were uncovered, those presented here representing only a small part thereof. The aim of the publication is to make available a selection of types which Schaeffer considered representative of the culture, his own research having made a significant contribution to deciphering it. With regard to the collections held by the National Archaeological Museum of France in St.-Germain-en-Laye, the finds from the harbour town of Minet el-Beida, which became a military zone after 1961 and was therefore no longer accessible, are worthy of particular attention. Adding to the series of publications on Ras Shamra-Ugarit that have come out since 1978, the aim of this volume is to contribute to knowledge of the archaeological site, which is one of the most important Bronze Age sites in the eastern Mediterranean region.

The publication project was directed by Dr. Caroline Sauvage.

Lema I. Bassit 2 (Syrie) - Fouilles Paul Courbin (1971-1984)
Braemer, Frank, and Pascal Darcque, Lema I. Bassit 2 (Syrie) - Fouilles Paul Courbin (1971-1984) (Brepols, 2023), pp. xii + 394 w/ 1809 b/w & 59 col. ills., 126 tables b/w., 3 maps b/w.Abstract

Located 50 km to the north of Latakia, the coastal site of Bassit was initially studied under the direction of Paul Courbin. Following on from excavations of the Hellenistic and Roman acropolis (1971–1972) and the Iron Age Necropolis (1973–1974), the ‘tell’ was excavated from 1972 to 1984. This volume presents a detailed description of the stratigraphy and architecture of the ‘tell’, together with the associated ceramic assemblages, and the mobile finds dating from the Late Bronze I and II periods. Bassit was established on the northern margins of the Kingdom of Ugarit in the mid-sixteenth-century BC. Excavations revealed that Cypriot imports were numerous throughout the Late Bronze Age, while Aegean pottery appears to have been very rare. The site was destroyed well before the passage of the so-called ‘Sea Peoples’, c. 1200 BC. During the Iron Age, Bassit played an ongoing role in controlling maritime access from Cyprus and coastal shipping. The trade in Cypriot pottery clearly dominates the levels Iron I and II (Aegean and Etruscan, respectively), as well as Iron III (Attic). During the Hellenistic period, the production of amphorae and coins at Bassit confirms the site’s association with Poseidon. Finds from the Roman levels are marked by an amphorae production.

For more information or to order, please visit the publisher's website.

The volume is authored by Frank Braemer and Pascal Darcque, from a grant awarded to Dr. Jacques Perreault.

Shengavit: A Kura-Araxes Center in Armenia
Rothman, Mitchell, and Hakob Simonyan, ed. Shengavit: A Kura-Araxes Center in Armenia (Costa Mesa, CA. Mazda, 2023), pp. 298 + xii . Publisher's VersionAbstract

The Kura-Araxes cultural tradition and its related societal structures originated at about 3500 BC and lasted until 2500 BC. Although archaeologists recognized its typical artifacts, which included a package of pottery style, housing, and ritual, more than 100 years ago, little was known outside its homeland region. This was in large part because that homeland lay behind the Iron Curtain, and such material that was published was in local languages that few outside it did not usually read, and local journals that were often unavailable internationally.  Interest in the West arose initially through areas outside of the South Caucasus. This is because, starting at about 3200 BC, small groups of migrants carrying the Kura-Araxes cultural package began to settle toward the west in the Taurus Mountains and by 2850 BC into the Levant. Somewhat later migrants began to spread eastward into the highlands of the Zagros Mountains. Research on these migrant communities therefore began before the fall of the Iron Curtain in Turkey, Iran, and the Levant (the Amuq of Turkey, north Syria, Israel, and Jordan). After the independence of South Caucasian states, cooperation of South-Caucasian, West Europeans, and Americans increased dramatically. This book represents one such collaboration of Armenian and American colleagues. 

The broader importance of the Kura-Araxes lies in part in its difference from neighboring cultures. The Kura-Araxes is parallel in time to the origin of cities and states in the alluvial plains of Mesopotamia to its south (the LC3-5/Uruk and Early Dynastic I/II). Unlike its neighbor to the south, the Kura-Araxes's homeland lies in the mountainous environments of the South Caucasus (Armenia, Georgia, and Azerbaijan). Although there were significant intercultural connections with Northern Mesopotamia in the LC2, represented in part by Chaff-Faced Wares, a cultural barrier appeared to cut the mountains off from the Mesopotamian Jazira for the next millennium. The first five hundred years of the Kura-Araxes (KA1) were typified by small, egalitarian societies of farmer-herders with homogeneous cultural traditions, represented in its pottery styles and other cultural aspects. The second 500 years (KA2) saw some Balkanization in cultural traditions and some kinds of increases in societal complexity, though not at all as complex as the state-level societies to its south. Therefore the nature and evolutionary trajectory of the Kura-Araxes cultural tradition and societal structures present interesting cases for study and for comparison.

Some of the changes of the KA2 include an increase in population, sophistication of craft technology, and integration of smaller polities with centers of increased size, although still small by Mesopotamian contemporaneous standards. The site of Shengavit, located in the city of Yerevan on a high bluff over the Hrazdan River (now dammed to create Lake Yerevan), represents one of these small centers at 6 hectares. The site was excavated from the 1930's to the 1980's and 2000-2008. Many artifacts are housed in the National History Museum, the Erebuni Museum, and the Yerevan Museum. Yet little real detail was published on the site and its artifacts. Less yet was probed about the political and economic organization, interactions, and ideological features these artifacts represented. So, in 2009 Rothman joined Simonyan with the idea to make these artifacts and their interpretations available to a wider audience. They began with three excavation seasons using modern techniques to clarify some issues. They brought together a set of talented experts from Armenia and America. This volume represents descriptions and analyses of the architecture, natural environment, archaeobotany, archaeozoology, metallurgy, lithics, pottery, ground stone and bone tools, rituals, mortuary practices, symbols, and personal adornments of an ancient people in a mountainous corner of the Middle East. What sort of picture can we paint from the still preliminary patterns and colors these artifacts provide? 
The publication project was directed by Dr. Mitchell Rothman.

2022
Pottery from the University of California, Berkeley Excavations in the Area of the Maški Gate (MG22), Nineveh, 1989-1990
Wilkinson, Eleanor Barbanes, and Stephen Lumsden, Pottery from the University of California, Berkeley Excavations in the Area of the Maški Gate (MG22), Nineveh, 1989-1990 (Archaeopress, 2022), pp. 145.Abstract

UC Berkeley excavations uncovered a district of large dwellings and wide streets near the Maški Gate (MG22), providing a stratigraphic history of Late Assyrian ceramics at the centre of the empire through to the 7th century BC. Pottery from the University of California, Berkeley Excavations in the Area of the Maški Gate (MG22), Nineveh, 1989-1990 presents the pottery from the UC Berkeley excavations in 1989 and 1990. Nineveh is one of the longest occupied cities in the world, with a record of habitation extending back to at least the middle of the 7th millennium BC, continuing in an almost uninterrupted sequence through today. It was one of the major urban centres in which the fundamental features of modern civilization first emerged. Its political and religious significance – particularly during its apogee as the capital of the Assyrian Empire in the late 8th and 7th centuries BC – secured its status as a legendary metropolis in history and literature. In 1987, the University of California at Berkeley initiated a program of archaeological investigations at Nineveh. The expedition aimed to elucidate the character and layout of the city’s urban neighbourhoods; an aspect of Assyrian urbanism that had received little close attention in prior excavations. Near the Maški Gate (MG22), the UC Berkeley team uncovered a district of large dwellings and wide streets. Multiple layers of occupation and rebuilding suggest the area was occupied during the period when the city was handsomely embellished and enlarged by the Assyrian monarch, king Sennacherib (705/704-681 BC). The work in MG22 provides a stratigraphic history of Late Assyrian ceramics at the centre of the empire through at least the 7th century BC.

The publication project was directed by Dr. Eleanor Wilkinson.
For more information, or to purchase, please visit the publisher's website.

Excavations at the Palatial Complex. Kerkenes Final Reports 2.
Summers, Geoffrey D. Excavations at the Palatial Complex. Kerkenes Final Reports 2. (Oriental Institute – University of Chicago. OIP #148, 2022), pp. 532.Abstract

With contributions by Susanne Berndt, Ahmet Çinici, Yilmaz Selim Erdal, Evangelis Piskin, Noël Siver, and Francoise Summers and Turkish summary by Güzin Eren
 

The city on the Kerkenes Dağ in the high plateau of central Turkey was a new Iron Age capital, very probably Pteria. Founded in the later seventh century BC, the city was put to the torch in the mid-sixth century and then abandoned. Excavations at what we have identified as the Palatial Complex were conducted between 1999 and 2005. The stone glacis supporting the Fortified Structure at the eastern end of the complex was revealed in its entirety while the greater portion of the Monumental Entrance was uncovered. Portions of buildings within the complex were also excavated, notably one-half of the heavily burned Ashlar Building, one corner of the Audience Hall, and parts of other structures. This volume documents as fully as possible the results of those excavations with the exception of sculpture, some bearing Paleo-Phrygian inscription, already published (OIP 135). The location of the complex, its development from foundation to destruction, and its architecture are discussed and illustrated. Within the Monumental Entrance were extraordinary, unexpected, semi-iconic stone idols, and other embellishments that include stone blocks with bolsters, bases for large freestanding wooden columns, and stone plinths. Extensive use was made of iron in combination with timber-framed facades and large double-leafed doors. Objects of gold, silver, copper alloys, and iron attest to former splendor. Organization of the volume is roughly chronological, beginning with the Fortified Structure, and concluding with the Monumental Entrance. Presentation of material culture is organized with an emphasis on context. Specialist chapters report on alphabetic and nonalphabetic graffiti and masons' marks, animal bones among which was found the jawbone of a dolphin, and a Byzantine-period burial. This volume provides further dramatic and surprising new evidence for the power, wealth, and sophistication of an eastward expansion of Phrygian culture exemplified by architecture, cultic imagery, Paleo-Phrygian inscriptions and graffiti, pottery, and artifacts. The brief existence of this extraordinary city, hardly more than one hundred years, together with the excellent stratigraphic context provided by the destruction level, offer an unparalleled window onto the first half of the sixth century BC on the Anatolian Plateau.

The publication project was directed by Dr. Geoffrey Summers.
For more information, or to purchase, please visit the publisher's website.

Gela : The Thesmophorion of Bitalemi. The Archaic Phase : Excavations P. Orlandini 1963-1967
Albertocchi, Marina, Gela : The Thesmophorion of Bitalemi. The Archaic Phase : Excavations P. Orlandini 1963-1967 (Giorgio Bretschneider editore; Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei – Roma, 2022), pp. 532.Abstract

The sanctuary located on the hill of Bitalemi, in Gela, is among the best-known sites of Demetriac worship in Greek Sicily, also thanks to an accurate identification of the goddess worshipped here (Demetra Thesmophoros), as mentioned in some graffiti; the value and the peculiarity of the findings, only published in a preliminary way, contributed to the fame of the sacred area.

The volume presents the long-awaited systematic publication of the excavations conducted by Piero Orlandini in the campaigns of 1963, 1964 and 1967. The study of the structures and the materials just concerns the first phase of attendance of the sanctuary (the so-called stratum 5), which began in the second half of the 7th century BC and was sealed by a casting of clay around 550 BC. The volume focuses on the site’s historical-religious aspect in the light of the exceptional circumstances in which the votive offerings were found: almost all of them were primary deposits, protected by a layer of sand which allowed them to be preserved in good conditions.

The finds are therefore concisely presented, including almost 3000 deposits found in situ and the fragmentary objects, which are catalogued in a separate list. The catalogue is followed by a rapid class-by-class commentary, which provides a useful framework of the ritual objects brought to light; these mostly consist in imported or locally made pottery, but metallic objects, terracotta figurines and loom weights are also presented. After suggesting some hypothesis on the sanctuary’s activity in this first attendance period and on the number of offerings, an extensive discussion on the ritual practice is proposed, relying on the archaeological data and the worship practice. Some interesting information on the reconstruction of Thesmophoric feasts can be gained from the comparison of the findings and their deposition with the epigraphic evidence.

The complete publication of the excavation journal from the 1960s can be found in the appendix, according to the excavator’s indications.

The volume is authored by Marina Albertocchi, with the collaboration of Maddalena Pizzo.

The Archaeology of Southwest Afghanistan. Vol. I: Surveys and Excavation
Trousdale, William B., and Mitchell Allen, The Archaeology of Southwest Afghanistan. Vol. I: Surveys and Excavation (Edinburgh University Press, 2022), pp. 753, w/ 1300 B&W ills. and 5 tables.Abstract

This volume reports the findings of a legacy archaeology project, the largest ever undertaken in southwest Afghanistan. For the decade of the 1970s, the joint US-Afghan Helmand Sistan Project conducted extensive survey and excavation in the lower Helmand Valley and adjacent areas, documenting 200 archaeological sites in the region from the Bronze Age to the present. Four decades of warfare since that time have made further work in this region almost impossible.  The Helmand River valley was one of the main routes between Mesopotamia, Iran, India, and Central Asia. Mythical and historical figures from Alexander of Macedon to Zoroaster and from Rustam to Tamerlane passed through and left their marks.

 

This book provides the first archaeology-based cultural history of the region, fleshing out and often challenging what we know from historical documents.  Among key findings of the project were the tracing of extensive canal systems through the desert, the discovery of a previously unknown early Iron Age occupation and of the westernmost Buddhist shrine from the early expansion of the religion, and archaeological evidence of the otherwise unstudied local Islamic dynasty, the Saffarids, who controlled much of the Middle East and Central Asia from Sistan in 9th and 10th centuries CE.   While Volume 1 provides a description of each site studies, a second volume in development addresses the environmental and geological context, reports on the material culture finds including inscriptions, coins, and ceramics, and summarizes the importance of these finds for the study of the Afghan past.

 

The volume is authored by William B. Trousdale and Mitchell Allen.
Please visit the publisher's website for purchasing and other information.
The project is located online at 
http://www.sistanarchaeology.org

 

Tell Afis Area N. Excavations Seasons 2001-2007. Phases XI-I. Middle Bronze Age - Iron Age I. Stratigraphy, pottery and small finds
Michele, Angelo Di, Tell Afis Area N. Excavations Seasons 2001-2007. Phases XI-I. Middle Bronze Age - Iron Age I. Stratigraphy, pottery and small finds (Le Lettere (Studi di Archeologia Siriana 7), 2022), pp. 331 (+12 Arabic Summary), 102 figs., 58 plates, 29 tables.Abstract

Tell Afis is located at the southern edge of the Jazr plain in the Idlib region of northern Syria. The site, measuring 570m x 500m, consists of a very large lower city with an acropolis on its northern edge. After initial excavation in the 1970s, fieldwork resumed in 1986 under a mission jointly directed by Stefania Mazzoni and Serena Maria Cecchini.

This volume concerns the excavation of area N, the eastern part of the acropolis. The first chapter describes these field investigations from 2001 until 2007. A detailed analysis of the occupation of the area during the Bronze Age follows. The Middle Bronze Age fortifications are discussed (Chapter II - phase XIf-a), followed by the Middle Bronze to Late Bronze Age transition (Chapter III - phase X) and Late Bronze Age occupation, including various architectural phases dating mainly to Late Bronze II (Chapter IV- phase IX-VIIb), the transition between Late Bronze and Iron Age I (Chapter IV - phase VIIa). Chapter V is entirely dedicated to the occupation sequence of the Iron Age I period of which six major phases with related sub-phases were identified (phases VI-I). Chapter VI compares the ceramic sequences between areas N and E, located in the western part of the acropolis. The final chapter (Chapter VII) places the excavation results in a historical context and re-analyses site B, located in the northern sector of the lower city. The volume concludes with an appendix giving a detailed analysis of the faunal remains of Area N by Barbara Wilkens, in addition to an itemized abstract in Arabic.

Each chapter includes an examination of the stratigraphic and architectural data, and the objects found in each context. This is followed by a detailed section examining the pottery from each phase. Extensive illustrations (comprising phased plans, sections, photographs and ceramic tables, accompanied by additional tables and graphs) supplement the text.

The author is Angelo di Michele.

For purchasing and further information, please contact the publisher:
https://www.lelettere.it/libro/9788893663014

Kition-Bamboula VIII. Le port de guerre de Kition
Fourrier, Sabine, Olivier Callot, and Marguerite Yon, ed. Kition-Bamboula VIII. Le port de guerre de Kition (MOM Editions, 2022), pp. 336.Abstract

From 1984 to 1999, the French archaeological mission of Kition, under the supervision of M. Yon, conducted extensive excavations to the north of the Bamboula sanctuary. These excavations revealed the remains of shipsheds of the Classical period, among the best preserved in the Mediterranean, which opened to the north on a closed harbour basin. This book offers a detailed and cross-cutting study of this outstanding discovery: the building is contextualized in its paleo-environment (both at the local and regional levels), the chronology of its different phases is established, its architecture is carefully described and restored for the missing parts (superstructure). Finally, we assess the importance of this military harbour for the history of Kition, Cyprus and the Eastern Mediterranean, at the time of the Classical kingdom (4th century BC) and at the beginning of the Hellenistic period. The volume is completed by a study of the ceramics from the Roman period discovered in the filling of the basin.

The archives of the excavation are available on the open access web-portal chypre.mom.fr.

The full volume is available with open access through OpenEditions Books.

The publication project funded by the White Levy Program was directed by Prof. Jean-Christophe Sourisseau.

Excavations at Tilmen Höyük I. The Fortification System in the Lower Town.
Orsi, Valentina, Excavations at Tilmen Höyük I. The Fortification System in the Lower Town. (Dipartimento di Storia Culture Civiltà : Ante Quem ; OrientLab Series Maior Volume 7, 2022), pp. x+448 + 125 color plates & several line drawings and color diagrams.Abstract

With contributions by Vittoria Cardini and Raffaella Pappalardo

This is the final report on the excavations of the lower town at Tilmen Höyük, a capital city of the Middle Bronze Age located at the fringes of the North Syrian Plains (Gaziantep province, South-Eastern Turkey). The publication covers the results of the excavations undertaken between 2003 and 2008 by the joint Turco-Italian team directed by N. Marchetti, and includes a detailed analysis of topography, stratigraphy, architecture, ceramics and finds.
The site of Tilmen Höyük lies in the Islahiye valley, which connects the lower Orontes valley to the central Taurus southern piedmont. The region belongs to the Inner Syria cultural contexts, and held a highly strategic significance, over the course of time, for the connections between Upper Mesopotamian and Levantine lowlands on the one hand the Anatolian highlands on the other. Settled since the LC period, the city attained its major flourishing during MBA 2, when it is probably to be identified with ancient Zalbar/Zalwar. Key evidence suggest that the site hosted a Babylonian trading station, which was part of a network parallel to that of Assur running from the Middle Euphrates to Cilicia. With its massively enclosed lower town and fortified acropolis, the ‘Cyclopean’ basalt blocks architecture, Tilmen Höyük is one of the most monumental cities of the area in this period.

This first volume in the series is authored by Dr. Valentina Orsi.

Visit the publisher's website to download and for other information: https://www.orientlab.net/pubs/

2021
Koukounaries I. Mycenaean Pottery from Selected Contexts
Koehl, Robert B. Koukounaries I. Mycenaean Pottery from Selected Contexts (Archaeopress, 2021), pp. 416, w/158 b&w and 16 colour plates.Abstract

With a contribution by Richard Jones

*Please note that this publication was featured in our December 2022 Newsletter with an erroneous description. The following information is accurate*

The excavations on the Koukounaries Hill, Paros, Greece, conducted under the direction of Demetrius U. Schilardi for the Archaeological Society at Athens from 1976 to 1992, revealed a 12th century B.C.E. Mycenaean building, an Iron Age settlement, and an Archaic sanctuary. Koukounaries I: Mycenaean Pottery from Selected Contexts presents the pottery from five areas inside the building: three large storerooms, the main east-west corridor, and a small shrine, as well as the pottery from a limited reoccupation after the building’s fire destruction and abandonment. The ceramics from the main occupation phase comprise the largest and best-preserved domestic assemblage from the 12th century B.C.E. in the Cyclades and offer important evidence for the continuation of Mycenaean culture after the destruction of the mainland palatial citadels. The small deposits of pottery from the reoccupation phase, provide important stratigraphic evidence for defining the Late Helladic IIIC ceramic sequence. The volume also considers the function of the individual spaces within the building, based largely on the patterns of shape distributions and quantities, with the statistics for each context presented in a series of appendices. Other issues are also explored, including the evidence for itinerant potters, the trade in antique vases, and the place of origin of the settlers who founded and inhabited the Mycenaean building on the summit of the Koukounaries Hill.

The volume is authored by Robert B. Koehl.
For more information or to purchase the volume, please visit the publisher's website.

Lagash I: The Ceramic Corpus from Al-Hiba, 1968–1990. A Chrono-Typology of the Pottery Tradition in Southern Mesopotamia during the 3rd and Early 2nd Millenium BCE
Renette, Steve, Lagash I: The Ceramic Corpus from Al-Hiba, 1968–1990. A Chrono-Typology of the Pottery Tradition in Southern Mesopotamia during the 3rd and Early 2nd Millenium BCE, Vol.I (Brepols, 2021), pp. 450+XXIV, 228 b/w ill. + 1 colour ill., 366 b/w tables.Abstract
Six seasons of excavations (1968-90) at the southern Mesopotamian site of al-Hiba, the ancient city of Lagash, retrieved one of the largest datasets of pottery spanning the entire third and early second millennium BCE.

Between 1968 and 1990, Donald P. Hansen and Vaughn E. Crawford directed six seasons of excavations at al-Hiba, the ancient Sumerian city-state Lagash. Overseen by Edward L. Ochsenschlager, the team documented one of the largest ceramic datasets from a southern Mesopotamian site spanning the entire third and the early second millennium BCE. With the availability of digital tools and relational database technology, the Al-Hiba Publication Project, led by Holly Pittman at the Penn Museum, has now analyzed these results in this publication by Steve Renette. As a case-study in the difficulties of working with legacy data, the publication project also assesses how the original recording methodology structures and limits the interpretation of these datasets. This first volume of the Lagash publications presents the ceramic corpus organized in a chrono-typology that traces the development of the pottery tradition through the Early Dynastic, Akkadian, Ur III, and Isin-Larsa periods. Often confirming well-established trends in general Mesopotamian ceramic development, this dataset from the south-eastern part of the Mesopotamian alluvium also introduces an underappreciated degree of regional variation.

For more information or to purchase the volume, please visit the publisher's website.

The Excavation Report of Burial Pits Associated with the Tomb of Marquis Yi of Zeng
Zhang, Changping, The Excavation Report of Burial Pits Associated with the Tomb of Marquis Yi of Zeng (Beijing, The Science Press, 2021), pp. 249, 172 figs., 70 tables.Abstract

This is the report on the excavation of the secondary pits associated with the tomb of Marquis Yi, ruler of the state of Zeng, who died in 433 BCE. The tomb is located at Suizhou in Hubei province, China. Excavated in 1978, it is the richest tomb known from the entire pre-imperial period and one of the most important archaeological discoveries ever made in China. The tomb contained ten metric tons of bronze artifacts—ritual vessels and, along with them, a tuned set of 65 bells weighing 2,500 kg and bearing inscriptions about music theory. The bell inscriptions constitute the earliest text on music theory known from China; they are hugely important for the light they shed on the rather different music theory of later periods in Chinese history and also for comparison with roughly contemporary texts from Greece. An archaeological report on Marquis Yi’s tomb was published in 1989, and most of the tomb’s furnishings are permanently displayed at the Hubei Provincial Museum in Wuhan. Temporary exhibitions of selected items have traveled to museums in many countries, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and the Sackler Gallery of Art in Washington DC. 

In January of 1999, a row of five secondary pits was discovered 15 meters east of Marquis Yi’s tomb. The pits were excavated by Zhang Changping, the director of this publication project, who was a researcher at the Hubei Provincial Institute of Archaeology at the time. Pit No. 1 contained 465 bronze objects or object fragments of forms not previously known. Their patterned disposition in the pit suggests that they all belonged to a single structure. Our guess is that they are structural parts of a canopy, bronze fittings of wooden parts that have disintegrated. Some of them evidently were made so that they could be fitted together, dismantled for storage, and reassembled at need. As for the other four pits, they contained orderly rows of pottery urns, jars, pots, plates, lids, and so forth, many of which were found sealed with locking mechanisms and had held food. These perhaps were funerary offerings for the marquis’ consumption in the afterlife.

The Excavation Report of Burial Pits Associated with the Tomb of Marquis Yi of Zeng was sponsored by the Shelby White and Leon Levy Program in 2015 and published in Sept. 2021 by the Science Press, Beijing, the biggest academic press in China. For more information or to purchase the volume, please visit the publisher's website.

 

Barāqish / Yathill (Yemen) 1986-2007. Vol. I: Excavations of Temple B and Related Research and Restoration. Vol. II: Extramural Excavations in Area C and Overview Studies
Antonini, Sabina, and Francesco G. Fedele, ed. Barāqish / Yathill (Yemen) 1986-2007. Vol. I: Excavations of Temple B and Related Research and Restoration. Vol. II: Extramural Excavations in Area C and Overview Studies (Archaeopress, 2021), pp. 944.Abstract
This first volume of the study is particularly devoted to the temple of god ʿAthtar dhu-Qabḍ (Temple B), dated to the second half of the 1st millennium BCE. Six chapters fully illustrate its excavation, architecture, restoration, findings, inscriptions, and dating. The contribution of this work and monument to regional history transcends its local significance. The report is framed by ten chapters detailing the historiography of research on Barāqish, the initial surveys carried out in 1986-1987, the architecture and restoration of Temple A together with the extramural excavation at the adjacent curtain wall, the cultic equipment, and radiocarbon datings.
 
The core of the second volume of the study is a final report on Area C, an exploratory
dissection through the western edge of the Barāqish mound outside the curtain wall, and
a unique operation for Yemen until now. Eight chapters detail the excavation, stratigraphy,
and geoarchaeology (from about 800 BCE to the present), in addition to radiocarbon
chronology, cultural finds, animal and plant remains, economy, major historical events, and
unique evidence for trade. Four further chapters offer a glimpse of settlement archaeology
for Sabaean Yathill and the survey of a religious centre to the west, together with a first
typology of Minaean pottery and an epigraphic and political-historical overview for Barāqish
and the Jawf. The contributors, Sabina Antonini and Francesco G. Fedele, are recognized experts in South Arabian archaeology.
 
 
The Citadel of Dur-Katlimmu in Middle and Neo-Assyrian Times
Kühne, Hartmut, ed. The Citadel of Dur-Katlimmu in Middle and Neo-Assyrian Times (3 Volumes: Harassowitz Verlag, Berichte der Ausgrabung Tall Šēḫ Ḥamad / Dūr-Katlimmu vol. XII, 2021).Abstract

Following BATSH 2 (2005) on the Post-Assyrian to Roman period, the three-part volume BATSH 12 on the Middle and Neo-Assyrian period (c. 1300–550 BC), also edited by Hartmut Kühne, concludes the publication of the excavation at the citadel mound of Tall Šēḫ Ḥamad between 1978 and 1988.
Part 1 (text) comprises 17 chapters. A thorough documentation of the topography of Tall Šēḫ Ḥamad at the dawn of the excavation in 1978 is followed in four chapters (2-5) by description and interpretation of the stratigraphy, architecture, cuneiform archive, and graves of the Middle Assyrian levels. Chapters 14 and 15 cover the Neo-Assyrian evidence in a similar way. Both can be checked against the field record summarized in chapter 18 (part 2) and ultimately against the field diaries published online. Selected Middle Assyrian objects groups are analyzed in chapters 6 to 10 (clay sealing devices, scarab impressions, early iron, glass, and ceramics). Aspects of Middle Assyrian administration and the etymology of Duara are treated in chapters 11 and 13. Chapter 16 evaluates the fragments of a Neo-Assyrian sculptured orthostat. The urban and socio-economic-environmental development and the historical role and significance of Dūr-Katlimmu in both periods are debated in chapters 12 and 17 respectively.
Besides chapter 18 part 2 covers the catalogues of the scarab impressions (19), the grave goods (21) and the remaining objects of the Middle (20) and Neo-Assyrian (22) periods. Each chapter is preceded by English abstracts/summaries on which the Arabic part is based. In addition, the publication is supplemented by a cassette with 57 colour plates and folding plans in part 3.
In collaboration with:
H. Kühne, P. Pfälzner, J. Rohde, S. Kulemann-Ossen/G. Preuss, H. Dohmann, S. Seidlmayer, K. Tantrakarn/T. Kikugawa/Y. Abe/I. Nakai, E. Cancik-Kirschbaum, C. Hess, J. Bussiliat/K. Gnybek/A. Kaeselitz/H. Kühne/J. Rohde.

The publication project was directed by Dr. Hartmut Kühne
For ordering information, please visit the publisher's website HERE

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